Marin County coroner charged with sexual abuse
Marin County’s top coroner has been charged in connection with repeated sexual abuse, prosecutors said.
Darrell Harris is facing four felony sex offense charges, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, said Assistant Dist. Atty. Barry Borden of the Marin County district attorney’s office.
Harris, 46, also was charged with a misdemeanor count of sexual battery, Borden said. He was taken into custody on an arrest warrant involving sexual abuse allegations.
Authorities had issued an alert to law enforcement agencies last week, urging them to be on the lookout for Harris, the Marin Independent Journal reported. He was spotted Thursday in Eureka, Calif.
The alleged abuse occurred between May 2008 and March 30, 2017, according to a Marin County Superior Court criminal complaint.
Lt. Doug Pittman, a spokesman for the Marin County sheriff, said the allegations involving Harris occurred outside of his employment. The Sheriff’s Office is conducting a personnel investigation, he said. The coroner’s office is a division of the Sheriff’s Office.
The Santa Rosa Police Department is investigating the sexual abuse allegations, Pittman said.
Harris, who joined the coroner’s office in 2003, was named investigator of the year in 2008 from the California State Coroners’ Assn., the Marin Independent Journal reported.
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